Poltergeist and A Nightmare on Elm Street

So these two movies scared the shit out of me when I was a kid, and they scared the shit out of me when I was a young adult/teenager. Now they are still pretty scary films... Unlike films, which as a child are mentally scarring such as Stephen King's IT (it gave me my fear of clowns), which as you got older you realised how silly they were (I wish they did it like the novel, then it would probably still scare me); these films still creep me out.
Unlike films like JAWS which when you watch them, you are not too afraid, however years later when you're body/surfboarding/swimming in the sea you suddenly have a panic attack from being subconsciously reminded that there might be something underneath you that would like to take a bite out of you. These films scared you while you were watching them, and if you watched them before you went to bed (especially during a storm) you would NOT be able to sleep, at least for a few hours.

So what makes these two films still make me nervous even at the age of 22? Well I think I should explore both.

POLTERGEIST:

1) The lack of music: I think the most suspenseful thing in this movie is the lack of music along with the editing. You are expecting something to happen, but there is nothing to indicate something will happen or has happened, and by the time it does, its too late; the film has already claimed you as its next victim, much like that tree...

2) Yes that damn tree, I think this scare worked on me more when I was a kid, but now I live in a room which has old trees outside my room, I think the creep factor has come back.

3) THE CLOWN: I cannot honestly remember what I saw first IT or POLTERGEIST, but that clown was scary as FUCK.
Who in their right mind would by ANYONE let alone a CHILD a toy like that? I mean who would think that that clown would be something fun or friendly? The worse thing in the movie is that it does absolutely nothing during most of the film!!! You're waiting the whole time, every shot of that clown is just creepy, from it's mouth, to it's dangly hand *shudder* This builds up the suspense so much that when the clown does do something, you're so emotionally exhausted waiting for it to happen, while going through hell with the rest of the movie, that your guard has been totally been destroyed.
That's just the problem with clowns, they wait until you're most venerable, then they strike!

Who said Clowns weren't scary?

Ok these three things are the things in this movie that are garanteed to scare me when watching this movie, hell a clown and suspence will scare me in ANY movie, well, not The Dark Knight, I actually liked the Joker....

Now for A Nightmare on Elm Street.

Well I'm not so sure exactly what creeps me out, it's just everything about this movie, I could name a list of things and go into detail about any of them. The theme tune, the sound effects, especially coming from Freddy's glove, the atmosphere, Robert Engulund's performance, all of these are very creepy factors in which I cannot make room for them all, as all of them are excellent things that Wes Craven as a director chooses excellently.
I think the biggest scare has to be the dream sequences or should I say nightmare sequences. These could probably only bet topped if David Lynch directed them. In fact if they ever reboot the series, David Lynch should either direct, or direct the dream sequences, that would be the only thing scarier. These dream sequences are very down to earth and real, Freddy doesn't turn into a giant snake or anything, he's just a scary person who doesn't need 'dream powers' he just IS. I must admit, before nightmare on elm street I have had similar dreams with a tormentor similar to Freddy (sans being exactly like Freddy) and my nightmares and dreams can be very David Lynchesqe/and or NoES. So I can relate that these dream sequences are very real, and don't go out of their way to be crazy, or obviously odd like the sequels, they were very subtly odd and non sequential. I think this topped with everything above made me not able to sleep after the movie.

Maybe it;s because I've had similar nightmares? Maybe it's just Wes' genious poking through..

Robert Englund - The man of your dreams!